BigWeather's Blog

Woke up fairly early as we were uncertain what we’d be doing for the day.  We had a few options — horseback riding near Homer, taking a bay cruise out to the opposite side of Kachemak Bay, or leisurely returning to Anchorage and stopping by along the way to see a few historical things and maybe even catch the tidal bore (where the outgoing tide collides with the incoming tide forming a wave) at 4:07p near Bird Point in Turnagain Arm.  In the end we ended up getting out way too late to do the first two.  Probably fortuitous as Genetta wasn’t really into the idea of a eight hour, 13 mile ride that the Homer horse guy does and the family as a whole wasn’t thrilled with the idea of hours spent across the bay.  I did look up shorter horse ride options but was unable to book a tour for the day.

So we headed to a cafe / bakery for breakfast off the Homer Spit.  It was tasty — we all had pretty standard breakfast faire with the exception of Michelle who was adventurous and had reindeer sausage.  She said it was pretty good.  I had some sourdough blueberry pancakes that were delicious in addition to bacon and eggs.  Bought a few baked goods for the road trip ahead and headed back to Land’s End and checked out.  Michelle and I walked out on the rocky beach one last time and I snapped some photos of the mountains wreathed in dark low-hanging clouds.

View from Lands End, Homer, looking across Kachemak Bay

Ship entering Kachemak Bay near Homer, Alaska

Seaplane docked at Beluga Lake near Homer

At the bakery earlier I had noticed a gentleman wearing rubber boots and, since we needed some to pan for gold, asked him where he got them.  We headed out on East End Road and found the store.  Though nice boots were quite expensive it turns out that cannery boots should be perfect and at $25 a pop it didn’t break the bank.  We also saw some great views of a bit further up Kachemak Bay including an impressive glacier and the Homer Spit.

Large glacier across Kachemak Bay from Homer

Home Spit, a five-mile long glacial moraine jutting into Kachemak Bay

Headed out, checking out a vantage point that was at the very southern tip of the western part of the Kenai peninsula where we could see both the eastern part with the peaks in Kenai Fjords National Park but also the peaks of the Alaska peninsula across Cook Inlet to the west.  Spectacular!  Headed further up the Sterling Highway past Anchor Point (the Blue Bus Diner regrettably closed, I would’ve loved another coffee milkshake!) and to the town of Ninilchik where the really scenic Russian Orthodox church “The Transfiguration of Our Lord” (built 1846, re-built 1901) is located.  The church stands atop a cliff looking down on the village below as well as across Cook Inlet to the Alaska peninsula range.  It is a tiny thing filled to the brim with iconography and a beautiful chandelier hanging from a sky blue painted wooden roof.  The church itself is surrounded by a white picket fence and a sizable graveyard overgrown with colorful wildflowers and each grave marked by a white-painted Orthodox cross.  Visited the gift shop and picked up a magnet and barely resisted picking up some Russian stacking dolls.

View looking southeast from Homer across Kachemak Bay

Typical terrain in the western side of Kenai peninsula

View from Anchor Point looking west toward Alaska peninsula (has many volcanoes)

Town of Nilichik on Kenai peninsula

Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Nilichik, Alaska

Note the mountain in the lower part of the shot -- I worked hard for that. =/

Hit the road shortly thereafter and headed up to the town of Kenai.  We were getting hungry by then and stopped at a pit BBQ place.  The less said about that the better — high priced and just not great (pulled pork is NOT to be drenched in ketchup).  Oh well, on every trip we have a dud or two and this one was definitely in the dud column.  Left lunch and drove a short ways to the Russian Orthodox church “Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary” (built 1895-6).  While not as spectacular as the first one we visited it was a bit older and worth a visit.  One particularly amusing incident when a cell phone went off in the church and the ringtone was… less than appropriate.  Everyone looked around until the guide went over and got it from behind his desk.  Whooops.  After leaving the church we saw a scenic view of the bay that Kenai sits on as well as the Alaska peninsula peaks across Cook Inlet.  We also looked for the remains of Fort Kenay (the US fort built right after purchase in 1869) but were not successful in finding it.  Oh well, not a big deal, it is a reconstruction anyhow.

View of Cook Inlet from Kenai, Alaska

Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox in Kenai

Headed back on the road and picked up some food for Addison (he wisely ascertained the bad nature of the place we ate at for lunch and chose not to eat) at McDonalds as well as some half-and-half tea for Michelle and I to assist in keeping us alert during the long drive ahead.  At this point it was about 3p and we knew there was no way we’d see the tidal bore.  Oh well.

Chugach State Park, Kenai peninsula

Lake view in Chugach State Park

Chugach State Park -- love the birch trees!

Higher elevation pass in Chugach State Park

Drove back through to Turnagain Arm, enjoying the sites and stopping from time to time to stretch and use the bathroom.  What an amazing drive!  Finally got to Turnagain Arm and noticed at one of the scenic pull-offs that people were staring out in the water with binoculars.  It couldn’t be the tidal bore — that was a couple of hours ago.  Turns out it was a pod of three or so Beluga whales (endangered ones found only in Cook Inlet and distinct from other populations).  We hopped back in the car and went back toward the head of Turnagain Arm, the direction that the whales were going.  Managed to see them all again, mostly just their backs but occasionally spouting.

Chugach State Park near Portage, head of Turnagain Arm

Head of Turnagain Arm

Two Cook Inlet Beluga whales

After the belugas we headed to McHugh Creek, a short trail overlooking Turnagain Arm and also some minor falls and a nice swimming hole.  Learned a bit about the lush valleys that can form in the nooks and crannies of the mountains surrounding the arm.  Very cool.  Headed back to the car and arrived in Anchorage once again.  We chose to eat at Gwennie’s.  I  had the club sandwich, Michelle a shrimp cocktail, Genetta some strawberry Belgian waffles, and Addison had steak and scrambled eggs.  Very good food.

View of the south side of Turnagain Arm

View looking south from north side of Turnagain Arm, near McHugh Falls, Chugach State Park

McHugh Falls in Chugach State Park

Checked into the hotel and got ready to visit the hot tub.  Thought we had it all to ourselves and then a guy with five kids showed up.  I introduced myself and learned that he was from Nome and visits Anchorage to get away with his family (including another kid to bring the total to six) once a year since there isn’t much opportunity to get away in Nome since it is not connected to the road system.  Learned a ton of things about Nome, Eskimo culture, etc.  Turns out Nome is having some rampant inflation since the discovery of Bering Sea gold and the influx of people needing services.  One miner is even mining the beach adjacent to the spot where they do their polar bear swim each year — causing a stir.  Also learned they pay $6 a gallon for gas, $7 for a gallon of milk, and $14 – $20 for soda.  Wow.  Nome had its first thunderstorm in three years the other day.  Finally, he recommended checking out some of the events in the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics that’ll be taking place while we’re in Fairbanks.  Really nice guy.

Headed back to the room, took a shower, and blogged prior to bed.  Honestly not a great day, but the belugas and meeting that nice man from Nome redeemed it pretty well.  On to Glenallen then Fairbanks tomorrow!

Route for Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Woke up earlier than Sunday hoping to get out and to Homer before lunch.  As Homer is at least four hours away it was important to get out early.  Predictably it didn’t happen, with us leaving town about 9:45a after a pretty decent breakfast at the adjacent Village Inn and an unsuccessful attempt to buy some waders from R.E.I. was thwarted due to them not opening until 10a.

Headed out along the Turnagain Arm again via AK1, this time stopping at only a few points of interest.  Bird Point was really nice and where we learned about tidal bores, a single wave that progresses up the arm twice a day with the tides sometimes reaching heights of six feet!  With the new moon the bore would be particularly impressive but as we didn’t want to wait around four or so hours we reluctantly continued on.  It wasn’t a total bust, though, as we did see a red squirrel.  Along the way we also saw the Alaska tourist train (twice) and tiny white specks on the  mountainside that I think were sheep but couldn’t verify.  At the head of Turnagain Arm the road turned south and then west, past some marshy land that harbored two moose!  Yay!

Alaska tourist train along Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm mountainside

Bird Point on Turnagain Arm

After a short climb of about a thousand feet the road descended to Kenai Lake and the Kenai River which were both a gorgeous turquoise color.  The road then straightened out and the terrain got far less hilly.  The vegetation thinned out as well, becoming more stunted evergreens.  We entered Soldatna, an unremarkable town with an incredibly slow McDonalds.  We decided only to get a little snack there as we really wanted to eat at the Blue Bus Diner in Anchor Point.  Another hour’s drive (mostly due to construction) and a quick fill-up of gas (at nearly $4 a gallon!) placed us there.

Kenai Lake, note the blueish glacier-tinged water

Kenai Lake view

Kenai Lake

What a remarkable place.  Great burgers, decent onion rings, and an absolutely amazing coffee milkshake.  I asked her to go heavy on the coffee, that if she reached the point where she thought I couldn’t possibly want more in the shake to keep on going.  She happily obliged.  I told her that we had read about her restaurant (well, technically it was her mother’s restaurant of 19 years) in a guide book and they were excited and asked to see it.  They were beaming at being mentioned so favorably in the guide.

By this time it had really begun to pour.  As Anchor Point is the furthest west on the Kenai peninsula (and incidentally the furthest west point of the road system of North America) and thus closest to the volcanically active and gorgeous Alaska peninsula from which the Aleutians emerge we were bummed to not have a great view.  Then the rain stopped and the clouds retreated up a bit allowing for some wonderful (if still a bit foggy) peeks at the jagged coast.  I also am pretty sure we saw our first bear on the trip, but I am not positive.  The weather continued to improve all the way into Homer, our resting place for the night.

View of the mountains of the Alaska Peninsula

I was a bit worried about Homer when planning this trip (a few weeks ago, haha, it came together fast) because I didn’t really have any plans for it.  I had just read it was a nice drive (it was OK), had charming shops, and could serve as a launching point for some local exploration, and I managed to snag two rooms at the Land’s End and that seemed like it may be fun.

I needn’t have worried.  Heading into town we could see down to the bay and the amazing Homer Spit, a five-mile long finger reaching almost halfway across the bay.  At the end of that lay the Land’s End and beyond that, on the other side of the bay, lay the absolutely gorgeous glacier-studded peaks of the eastern Kenai peninsula — the ones in Kenai Fjords National Park.  While the clouds still clung to the mountains the rain had continued to stay away and the view improved by the minute.

We drove past a small lake with several red seaplanes used for bear watching flightseeing trips in Katmai National Park on Alaska peninsula and drove along the spit  There were gray rocky beaches, lots of driftwood, and derelict fishing vessels all around.  Further on appeared gift shops, some eateries, charter companies, and the like to the right and the Homer marina to the left — an honest-to-goodness fishing town with a lively dock replete with cranes and places where fisherman were gutting their catches and posing their catch for photographs.  Really cool.  Homer Spit is a glacial moraine, deposited at the furthest extent of an Ice Age glacier 10,000 years ago.

Along the way we saw a couple of bald eagles in flight.  I finally captured one closeup on film to my delight.  Checked into our room and, I know I’ve used a lot of superlatives already on this trip, it has the best view I’ve ever seen.  Just amazing, very hard to keep my eyes off of.  Reluctantly we turned our back on the view and headed out on a walk up the spit to do some shopping and see the marina.

Bald eagle in Homer, Alaska

Fishing boat entering Kachemak Bay near Homer

Buoys at the Homer marina

The marina was very neat but the shopping not much to write home about.  I took so many pictures, it seemed that everywhere I pointed my camera was worthy of capturing and the constantly changing light (due to a setting sun and the clouds lifting by the minute) made everything look different moment to moment.  Bought the first of I hope many magnets as well.  Headed back to the hotel and picked up the car, driving into Homer to see if there was any shopping up there.  It was pretty disappointing though we did get to visit Beluga Marsh overlook and see some pretty (if devoid of moose and bear) marshland.  Did get visited by some mosquitoes, though!

Shopping along Homer Spit

Cool dark blue fishing house

Homer marina

Homer marina

Homer marina with mountains beyond

Homer marina

Gravel bar off of Homer Spit

Fishermen showing off the day's catch

Salty Dawg in Homer

Beached boats as housing near Homer Spit

Overgrown stairs at Beluga Marsh

Beluga Marsh just north of Homer

Headed back to Homer Spit and ate some pepperoni pizza at Finn’s.  Very tasty and they have a really cool two story restaurant with really nice views of the bay.  Addison was excitedly planning his future, intending to homestead in Alaska on an island or something and build a fishing retreat.  Headed back to the room about 10p to blog…

…except, once again, I didn’t.  Addison wanted to go outside and enjoy the view and, as it was still very light, I happily obliged.  We spent the next two hours talking, taking pictures, and skipping lots and lots of rocks.  A really fun time.  Darkness (or a bit less light) and the chill chased us in about midnight.  I started blogging at midnight and here I sit at 2:30a — words for all three days written but nary a picture chosen for any.

Homer shopping / charter pier

Yet another view of Homer harbor

Eating area of Finn's Pizzeria

Our hotel, the Lands End in Homer, Alaska

Mountains across Kachemak Bay

Another view of the mountains

Route for Monday, July 13, 2015

We awoke fairly late for a vacation day, about 9a, but that’s OK — I had designated Sunday as a relaxing free day out of fear that the one hour layover in Denver would bite us and cost us a day (as United doesn’t have any other flights to Anchorage than the one we made).  We choked down some Holiday Inn Express free breakfast (about worth what we paid for it — honestly while we love Holiday Inn Express the free breakfast has gone waaay downhill since 2010).  I had some weak scrambled eggs that demanded salt and some granola mixed with some kind of Kellogg’s berry cereal.  It was OK.

We walked out to the car which we had parked out at the rear of the parking lot which bordered a little marshy area that I was just sure would harbor a moose.  A quick background on me and moose — despite visiting the Adirondacks for years and years as well as Maine, Quebec, and the Rockies, all areas that are lousy with moose — I’ve never seen one.  It is something that my daughter particularly relishes taunting me about.  Alas, this pond harbored no moose.

Engine warmer cord -- yeah, it gets cold in Alaska

Unfortunately, however, our car’s tire harbored a nail.  We just didn’t know it yet.  Our low tire pressure indicator was on so we drove up towards Enterprise near downtown, taking the opportunity to stop by Title Wave used books (love the name) and pick up a tour guide to Alaska as well as some breakfast from McDonalds for Addison.  We also drove through downtown — seems like a promising place to visit at some point, if a little touristy.  It even has a Hard Rock Cafe!  That Enterprise location was a bit unhelpful.  Their repair guy discovered that a nail had caused a very slow leak and pumped it up enough to get us back to the airport to swap the car (as they had no Santa Fes available and we’d grown quite attached to it).

Downtown Anchorage

Drove back to the airport but sadly they had no Santa Fes either and the tire place they used was closed (it being Sunday).  So they swapped us out for a Subaru Outback.  It is a little smaller and lower to the ground, and we prefer the Santa Fe, but on the plus side it was a hybrid or somesuch — gets well over 500 miles to the tank.  In Alaska that’s a definite asset.  It also has quite a bit of get-up-and-go to it.  So while not exactly happy we decided to make do rather than keep the Santa Fe and bring it back on Monday as that’d mean not having a car (as we didn’t want to get a flat somewhere) for Sunday.

Our faithful new steed, a Subaru Outback

Left the airport and headed for lunch, trying a place called Gwennie’s Old Alaska Restaurant not far from the hotel.  A charming two story restaurant with very generous portion sizes, this turned out to be a great find.  I had chicken fried steak and eggs over medium (I know, I know!), Addison had a steak sandwich, Michelle had a shrimp salad (if I recall correctly), and Genetta had Eggs Benedict.  All very tasty.  The waitress was friendly too.  Leaving stuffed, we decided to head to Kincaid Park, a very large park just south of Anchorage and the airport.

Gwennie's Old Alaska Restaurant -- great food!

View from Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Alaska

Chalet at Kincaid Park

Kincaid Park is on land that was formerly manned during the Cold War with anti-ballistic Nike-Hercules missiles.  Scattered throughout the property are launch bunkers complete with painted unit designations and the like.  Very cool.

Nike-Hercules launch facility

Many, many trails for both walking and mountain biking, but also dog sled and cross country / Nordic skiing are found throughout the park as well as several ponds and a disc golf course.  After parking at the large “chalet” which commands views of Cook Inlet (which splits into two arms that go west and south of Anchorage) we took several trails for a couple of miles, enjoying the beautiful mostly sunny (with very isolated sprinkles from time to time) 70F weather.  One really cool thing was that many 747s flew very near as the park is adjacent to the airport.  What I didn’t realize until later is that all of them (they were arriving less than five minutes apart, one after another after another) had no windows to speak of — they were all cargo.

Cargo plane inbound to Anchorage

View of Cook Inlet and the Alaska peninsula beyond from Kincaid Park

Anchorage is a town of 300,000 in a state with a total population of nearly 800,000.  In fact it is the town with the second highest percentage of people relative to the population of the state (New York City being first).  Despite having 300,000 people that certainly doesn’t warrant a constant stream of 747s.  Turns out that Anchorage is one of the biggest air cargo hubs in the world and handles one-fifth of all air freight coming into the United States.  This is largely due to an almost perfect placement within 9 or so hours of 90% of the industrialized world (since it can reach Europe quickly via Arctic flyovers).

On the way out of the park Michelle noticed some people pulled over looking at something just beyond a chain link fence.  A moose!  Finally!  Though I didn’t get a great look it was unmistakably a moose and that was good enough for me.

Headed out of town on Seward Highway (AK1) after stopping by McDonalds for some drink.  Kind of a ho-hum drive for a few miles and then, WHAM!, this amazing view of Cook Inlet and then eighty miles of probably the prettiest road I’ve ever been on.  Ok, I lied, not probably — definitely.  And over the last five years and 12,000+ miles and 42 states I’ve seen a lot of pretty roads.

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

The road is mostly two lane with the occasional extra lane for passing slower traffic when going uphill.  It runs just off the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet the entire length with only the Alaska Railroad line to keep it company.  Gorgeous green mountains (as it is late July most of the snow has melted) on the south side of the inlet with higher mountains on the north side and much higher mountains further to the east near the head — with some visible glaciers as well.  Cascading falls and the milky white glacier water streams flow into the arm, cutting little gullies in the tidal flat’s mud.  Genetta saw some mountain sheep or maybe goats but we didn’t see them.  We stopped at several scenic vantage points and despite the low-hanging clouds still had some amazing views.

Glacier seen from Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm at low tide

Turnagain Arm

Prettiest railroad ever

Close-up of glacier near Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Nearing the head of Turnagain Arm (named during Cook’s exploration of the Inlet hoping to find the Northwest Passage and having to turn around yet again) we turned the car back west towards Anchorage.  Along the way we stopped at a marsh just south of town called Potter Marsh.  Absolutely worth it!  Though we didn’t see another moose, nor bear, we did see our first bald eagle.  Not only did it take flight several times (seemingly to settle a beef with nearby ducks) but it raised its head while in the nest a few times.

Potter Marsh near Anchorage

Bald eagle flying in Potter Marsh

Potter Marsh

Hopped back in the car and got dinner near downtown at a Mexican restaurant called La Cabana.  It was quite good — bean dip and beef and cheese enchiladas.  Addison had steak fajitas, Michelle has flautas that were huge, and Genetta shrimp scampi with delicious garlic bread.  After that we headed to see a movie at a theater northeast of town.  Like the airport, they ran with the Northern Lights motif to great effect.

La Cabana Mexican restaurant in Anchorage

Interior of the theater with cool aurora borealis theme

Exited the movies around midnight and headed back to the hotel, staggering into bed at midnight and (again) failing to blog.  This would catch up to me at some point for sure!  Still a great, if long, day.

Route for Sunday, July 12, 2015

We woke up really early, about 6 or 7a prior to leaving on our trip to Alaska.  The night before we had packed until 1:30a or so so we were quite bushed.  Had bagels for breakfast and wrapped up our packing.  Adrianne arrived around 9a and we set off for the airport.  This was our first time flying out of the new terminal at RDU — as we mostly fly Southwest if at all possible.  The United folk were very friendly and helpful even if we were nickeled and dimed by having to pay $100 extra to check in four bags.  Modern air travel, ugh.  Breezed through TSA (Addison even got pre-checked, the lucky guy) other than forgetting my FitBit was in my pocket.  Bought some snacks and the like prior to the 11:30a flight to Houston.

The flight to Houston was uneventful.  It was a smaller plane with only two seats on either side of the aisle.  I sat left of the aisle, Genetta to my left at the window.  The approach to Houston was neat as we saw much of the surrounding bayou and the like and the skyscrapers far in the distance.  The airport had a bronze statue of George H. W. Bush and it seemed that every store had a stuffed steer head above it or the Lone Star flag flying.  We ate at a place called Home Team Sports that was pretty average airport faire.  The mozzarella sticks appetizer was pretty yummy though.

Unfortunately the flight to Denver was quite late to board as it was late in arriving and, as it was an international arrival, had to clear customs.  As our layover in Denver was less than an hour leaving well over thirty minutes late was cause for some concern.  Once in the air the plane was very hot and I was crammed in a window seat sitting next to a stranger.  For a long while I just sat there miserable but ultimately decided talking to my neighbor may be the only thing to distract me from my situation.  Turned out she was a very nice older woman that lived in Houston but was visiting family in Billings, Montana.  We talked about Montana and Houston as well as my travels and also her travels to Alaska.  Landed in Denver quicker than expected — though they did not make up all of the lost time they had put quite a dent in it.

Luckily the departure gate for our flight to Anchorage was only two down from our arrival gate.  While they were lining up to board, we still had plenty of time.  In large part because that flight had also been delayed due to a recent thunderstorm in Denver — yay weather!  In fact, Addison, Genetta, and I even managed to make a quick run to a store to buy some Ritz Bits, Chex Mix, etc. to eat on the plane.  We knew it was going to be a long flight and would not be getting a meal on the plane (again, modern air travel, ugh).

Thunderstorm that hit Denver Airport still in the distance

When we had originally booked the flight we had been hit up after-the-fact with a fee of nearly $300, something about our seats.  Turns out that what it was is that there were no more Economy seats left when we booked and we were forced to upgrade to Economy Plus at $70 per seat.  Totally worth it, if only an accident.  That said, though, I’m likely too cheap to spend it on the flight from Anchorage to San Francisco or San Francisco to Washington, DC — that’d be nearly $600 and that’s a big “nope”.  Still, the flight was quite enjoyable with the extra leg room.  We paid a little extra so the kids could watch movies and TV on the back of the seat in front of them and that helped the time pass for them.

Me, I just stared out the window.  It was light the entire trip though we left at 7p Denver time (-2h) and arrived at 10:30p Anchorage time (-4h).  The Rockies were gorgeous but unfortunately it clouded up for the duration of the flight shortly after that, though as we were arriving near Anchorage some snow capped mountains peaked through.  In addition we did skirt by some really impressive thunderheads.

Rocky Mountains as seen from the flight to Anchorage

Our flight avoided these huge thunderstorms

Southern Alaska's snowy peaks peeking through the clouds

Final approach to Anchorage

Landed in Anchorage.  What a stark change from Houston and Denver.  A much smaller airport but with a lot of charm.  It has the feel of a wilderness lodge with lots of wood and stone.  There was a long corridor that was dimly lit but had colored patterns on the ceiling that evoked the Northern Lights.  Really cool.  We went to the Enterpise desk and were helped by a very friendly person and then directed to the garage where we picked up our sport SUV — a Hyundai Santa Fe.  Set out from the airport down a really narrow spiral ramp — so tight that various paint streaks of various colors had accumulated throughout the years.  Yikes!  Headed left on Spenard out of the airport and were at the hotel in no time, about 11:30p.  Even at that hour it was a nice pleasant dusk, kind of a headlights optional type of light.  Checked-in and quickly headed to the adjacent strip mall with a pizza place called Capri Pizza hoping to get a pizza before closing time at midnight.

Anchorage airport with gorgeous mountains in the background

Anchorage's Ted Stevens Airport

Northern Lights motif in the Anchorage Airport

Were able to snag a pepperoni pizza and some drinks, turned out to be delicious though Addison wasn’t a huge fan of it.  Unpacked stuff, set up the computer and organized the cameras but decided I was too tired to blog and turned in.  A very busy day!